pardonable mistakes; the reconciliation
of Severus and Niger, the marriage of their son and daughter, the
siege of Byzantium by the Macedonians, the invasion of the Gauls, which
recalled Severus to Rome, the sixty years which elapsed from his death
to the foundation of Constantinople, &c.]

[Footnote 54: Montesquieu, Grandeur et Decadence des Romains, c. 17.]

[Footnote 55: Themist. Orat. iii. p. 48, edit. Hardouin. Sozomen, l. ii.
c. 3. Zosim. l. ii. p. 107. Anonym. Valesian. p. 715. If we could credit
Codinus, (p. 10,) Constantine built houses for the senators on the exact
model of their Roman palaces, and gratified them, as well as himself,
with the pleasure of an agreeable surprise; but the whole story is full
of fictions and inconsistencies.]

[Footnote 56: The law by which the younger Theodosius, in the year 438,
abolished this tenure, may be found among the Novellae of that emperor
at the end of the Theodosian Code, tom. vi. nov. 12. M. de Tillemont
(Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 371) has evidently mistaken the nature
of these estates. With a grant from the Imperial demesnes, the same
condition was accepted as a favor, which would justly have been deemed a
hardship, if it had been imposed upon private property.]

[Footnote 57: The passages of Zosimus, of Eunapius, of Sozomen, and of
Agathias, which relate to the increase of buildings and inhabitants at
Constantinople, are collected and connected by Gyllius de Byzant. l.
i. c. 3. Sidonius Apollinaris (in Panegyr. Anthem. 56, p. 279, edit.
Sirmond) describes the moles that were pushed forwards into the sea,
they consisted of the famous Puzzolan sand, which hardens in the water.]

The frequent and regular distributions of wine and oil, of corn or
bread, of money or provisions, had almost exempted the poorest citizens
of Rome from the necessity of labor. The magnificence of the first
Caesars was in some measure imitated by the founder of Constantinople:
[58] but his liberality, however it might excite the applause of the
people, has in curred the censure of posterity. A nation of legislators
and conquerors might assert their claim to the harvests of Africa, which
had been purchased with their blood; and it was artfully contrived by
Augustus, that, in the enjoyment of plenty, the Romans should lose
the memory of freedom. But the prodigality of Constantine could not be
excused by any consideration either of public or private interest; and
the annual tribute of c